National Center for Postsecondary Improvement, Stanford University

Learning•Teaching•Outcomes•Access School&Work•K-16Transitions Quality&Efficiency•Accountability Restructuring•Technology•Assessment Access•Accountability•Outcomes K-16Transitions•Quality&Efficiency Technology•Teaching•Restructuring How do we create change? • Who benefits? • Where is change occurring? • What’s at stake? • Why is change necessary? Who benefits? • Where is change occurring? • What’s at stake? Why is change necessary? • How do we create change? Where is change occurring? • What’s at stake? • Why is change necessary? • How do we create change? • Who benefits? • A Collaborative Research Venture Stanford University • University of Pennsylvania • University of Michigan he National Center for Postsecondary Improvement contributes to dialogue and policy analysis aimed at T defining a common ground amidst increasingly complex and often contradictory environmental demands. FROM THE DIRECTOR NCPI research: In the wake of fifty years of rapid higher education • Provides policymakers, institutions, and students and expansion, colleges and universities are now facing their parents with an understanding of the marketplace a rapidly changing set of local, national, and for higher education. international pressures. Pursuing an ambitious research agenda, the National Center for Postsec- • Helps consumers and institutions better understand ondary Improvement (NCPI) aims to provide its student outcomes. various constituent groups—faculty, researchers, • Provides researchers, policymakers, and institutions administrators, students, parents, policymakers, with information on institutional and state responses and employers—with analysis, recommendations, to changing environmental demands. and conceptual tools that will enable them to adapt to, and even thrive in, this environment. • Offers educators, employers, and policymakers insights to improve student transitions from school to school NCPI’s research, dissemination, and outreach efforts and school to work. are creating a national forum for examining and improving teaching, learning, and reorganization • Provides policymakers and practitioners with data efforts across a wide range of postsecondary analysis and policy recommendations to improve settings—from community colleges to research access to higher education. universities. Our research is organized into six interconnected windows of study, with each project • Offers institutional leaders insight into managing area pursuing a substantive set of issues. The organizational change. researchers leading these projects bring an impressive range of disciplinary lenses—including • Provides educators and policymakers with an analysis economics, organizational studies, political science, of effective teaching, learning, and assessment history, sociology, and psychology—that provide a practices. strong foundation for inquiry and dialogue. My colleagues and I at NCPI hope that you, as a NCPI disseminates its research broadly to faculty, stakeholder in this important venture, will join us in researchers, administrators, students, parents, policymakers, examining the tremendous challenges and opportu- and employers. NCPI conducts seminars, focus groups, nities facing us today in postsecondary education. and conferences in which these constituencies assist Center researchers in exploring vital issues. Several vehicles enable the public to access research findings and communicate with NCPI researchers and staff, including print publications and a comprehensive website (http://ncpi.stanford.edu). The website features detailed Patricia J. Gumport descriptions of research projects, instructions for ordering Executive Director and downloading technical reports and other publications, NCPI news and upcoming events, and links to other higher education resources. ORGANIZATIONAL Analyzes the ways in which postsecondary organizations have RESTRUCTURING responded to a variety of environmental demands such as improving access and quality, lowering costs, and establishing better mechanisms for accountability. How do colleges and universities adapt to Project Area Director: Patricia J. Gumport, Stanford Institute shifting environmental for Higher Education Research, Stanford University demands? STUDENT Examines the context and paths that students follow TRANSITIONS: as they move from initial education to working life, often engaging in a combination of work and schooling. EDUCATION How can we improve AND WORK student transitions from Project Area Director: Peter Cappelli, the Wharton School, K-12 to postsecondary University of Pennsylvania; Robert Zemsky, Institute for Research institutions and from on Higher Education, University of Pennsylvania school to work ? MARKETS AND Investigates the ways in which students’ participation in STUDENT postsecondary education shapes their subsequent academic achievement and employment outcomes. OUTCOMES How does a student’s educational experience Project Area Director: Robert Zemsky, Institute for Research on affect his or her Higher Education, University of Pennsylvania employment choices and success? PROFESSIONAL Investigates the effectiveness of professional development DEVELOPMENT initiatives and the potential for these initiatives to enhance teaching and improve student learning. How can we improve undergraduate teaching Project Area Director: Richard Shavelson, School of Education, and accelerate the Stanford University education of under- prepared students? LEARNING AND Focuses on key dimensions of student assessment and ASSESSMENT learning, including external accreditation and state-level governance, institutional policies and practice, and How do state and academic program and departmental-level assessment institutional assessment and reforms. initiatives impact student learning? Project Area Director: Marvin Peterson, Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education, University of Michigan ACADEMIC Explores a number of approaches to achieving quality QUALITY AND assurance and accountability within the context of cost containment, including an examination of the potential of PRODUCTIVITY information technology as a driver of change. How can we improve the quality Project Area Director: William Massy, Stanford University and and productivity of Jackson Hole Higher Education Group academic institutions? Contributing Researchers (Past and Present) Organizational Restructuring Michael Bastedo Stanford University John Cole University of Michigan Marc Chun Stanford University Eric Dey University of Michigan Judy Dauberman Stanford University Marne Einarson University of Michigan Patricia Gumport Stanford University Heidi Grunwald University of Michigan Tina Gridiron Stanford University Sylvia Hurtado University of Michigan John Jennings Stanford University Karen Kurotsuchi Inkelas University of Michigan Imanol Ordorika Stanford University Ann Killenbeck University of Michigan Brian Pusser Stanford University Malinda Matney University of Michigan Angela Schmiede Stanford University Matthew Mayhew University of Michigan Stuart Snydman Stanford University Ellen Waterson Meader University of Michigan Chris Navia University of Michigan Student Transitions: Education and Work Michael Nettles University of Michigan Anthony Antonio Stanford University Marvin Peterson University of Michigan Thomas Bailey Columbia University Luis Ponjuan University of Michigan Sam Bersola Stanford University Thomas Perorazio University of Michigan John Bishop Cornell University Byung-Shik Rhee University of Michigan Peter Cappelli University of Pennsylvania Sally Sharp University of Michigan Amy Hightower Stanford University Andrea Trice University of Michigan Jerry Jacobs University of Pennsylvania Derek Vaughan University of Michigan Michael Kirst Stanford University Zhengxu Wang University of Michigan William Lorie Stanford University Leslie Wimsatt University of Michigan Michael McPherson Macalester College Michael Zabriskie University of Michigan S. Philip Morgan University of Pennsylvania Mary Ziskin University of Michigan Richard Murnane Harvard University David Neumark Michigan State University Academic Quality and Productivity Harold Salzman University of Massachusetts, Lowell William Massy Stanford University Morton Schapiro University of Southern California Xin-Chun Niu Stanford University Dan Shapiro University of Pennsylvania Andrea Wilger Stanford University Andrea Venezia Stanford University Robert Zemsky University of Pennsylvania Markets and Student Outcomes Julie Ackerman University of Pennsylvania Stephen Barley Stanford University Bill Carter University of Pennsylvania Greg Dubrow University of Pennsylvania Jennifer Giancola University of Pennsylvania Jackie Hendrick University of Pennsylvania Marvin Lazerson University of Pennsylvania Deborah Marcus University of Pennsylvania William Massy Stanford University Michael McPherson Macalester College Morton Schapiro Williams College Susan Shaman University of Pennsylvania Dan Shapiro University of Pennsylvania Weibin Xu University of Pennsylvania Robert Zemsky University of Pennsylvania Professional Development John Baugh Stanford University Andrea Bueschel Stanford University Mary Huber Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching Julie Kerekes Stanford University Bill Koski Stanford University Janet Lawrence University of Michigan Lee Shulman Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching Richard Shavelson Stanford University Learning and Assessment Catherine Augustine University of Michigan Jack Bernard University of Michigan Stephanie Brugler

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